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Mon, 10 Oct 2016 16:00:53 +0000en-UShourly1http://wordpress.org/?v=4.2.19Brazil Post Dilmahttp://americansforbrazil.com/brazil-post-dilma/
http://americansforbrazil.com/brazil-post-dilma/#commentsMon, 10 Oct 2016 16:00:53 +0000http://americansforbrazil.com/?p=1934 Continue Reading…]]>What’s that they say about Brazil being the country of tomorrow? The world is watching and wondering, will tomorrow ever come?

Barely a month has passed since Brazil’s Senate voted overwhelmingly to remove President Dilma Rousseff, putting an end to both 13 years of Workers’ Party rule and a controversial impeachment process that seemed to drag on and on.

Since then, Latin America’s largest country has seen some major and minor shifts. Brazil is traditionally a neutral international power, and for much of the 21st century maintained good relations with the Latin American countries moving to the left, as well as its more conservative neighbors and the U.S.

Read more of Vincent Bevins’ LA Times article here:http://lat.ms/2e9Nai5
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Presented by Miami International Business Attorney

]]>http://americansforbrazil.com/brazil-post-dilma/feed/0Brazilian Buyers Still Like Miamihttp://americansforbrazil.com/brazilian-buyers-still-like-miami/
http://americansforbrazil.com/brazilian-buyers-still-like-miami/#commentsWed, 03 Aug 2016 19:49:58 +0000http://americansforbrazil.com/?p=1930 Continue Reading…]]>Wealthy Brazilians with cash to put into second homes have always loved Miami. But since the political crisis erupted two years ago, they’ve loved it even more.

“There is no doubt in my mind that the motive to buy real estate in the U.S. has changed for Brazilians over the last two years,” says Fernando Bergallo, owner of FB Capital, a foreign exchange brokerage in São Paulo. “The guy who bought in Sunny Isles in 2011 did it because the price was right. Now with the price is higher and our currency weaker, and they are still buying. Because they are buying for other reasons besides income. They are still thinking about investing first, but are also thinking of getting out of Brazil in a close second.”

Brazil is in the throes of a once-in-a-lifetime political crisis. Its president, Dilma Rousseff, is likely to be sacked after facing a Senate hearing later this month. She is being accused of breaching budget laws, a crime of fiscal responsibility under the constitution. On Tuesday, Reuters reported that a 440 page Senate report accused the suspended president of “altering official budget figures” and “using funds from state-run banks to cover up the real state of Brazil’s faltering economy” ahead of her re-election bid in 2014.

Her impeachment will place her vice president and interim leader Michel Temer at the helm of a ship that’s run aground. The mood has been dismal since January. And investors with money to burn have been taking it out of Brazil. Much of it landing in Miami.

Bergallo said he has 400 clients this year looking to invest in everything from gasoline stations to apartments, primarily in Florida. Brazilians who invest at least $500,000 qualify for an EB-5 visa, giving them conditional permanent residency for two years. The qualifying value goes to $800,000 next year.

Marcio Kogut, 43, has been buying up Miami housing since 2013. Over the last two years, the political crisis gave him a bigger incentive to buy, he says. He has invested well over $2 million in the U.S., and has assets tied up in a Delaware offshore firm called Agency Kogut LLC and a family investment fund registered in Florida called MMK International Investment Fund. Back home in São Paulo, he runs Kogut eBusiness and a start up fund called 20Startups.com. His plan is to link Brazilian start-ups to the California venture capital scene. The goal is as much pure investment driven as it is a “plan B” should Brazil somehow track in the direction of Venezuela.

“I was in New York a month ago scouting things out, but it is too much like São Paulo,” says the father of two. “Miami is more business and pleasure. I can see me dividing my time between the two countries someday.”

For now, that’s in the future. In the meantime, he spent $490,000 on an apartment in the Design District of Miami in 2013; $650,000 for an apartment in the Brickell area near downtown in 2014 and $1.3 million for a luxury apartment in Sunny Isles.

“People do it as a way to earn dollar income,” he says. He’s not making a killing. After condo fees he’s bringing in just $100 a month from the 2013 property. The other two towers are still in development and won’t be move-in ready until later next year. He might flip them.

Brazil’s wealthy in Miami are different than those from Cuba, Argentina and Venezuela. All three are living in self-imposed exile. Brazilians, even those that are no fans of the ruling Workers’ Party, are more pragmatic. They are a hybrid: one part rent seeking investor, one part political refugee. There’s always been an inferior complex among middle and upper income Brazilians and having a Miami property to show off is as much smart money as it is transcending Brazilian roots, like a bumper sticker that says: my second home is in the States.

The fund has taken 2,000 square feet at the Brickell Arch building, formerly known as the Espirito Santo Plaza. According to a news release from the Downtown Development Authority, which assisted Leste in its search for office space, the company’s new location will start out with eight full-time traders plus two part-time employees over the next 12 months. Its lease term is five years.

“Miami was the natural choice when deciding to open an office in the U.S., not only for its proximity to Latin America and multicultural appeal but also for its burgeoning financial sector,” Stephan de Sabrit, managing partner of Leste, said in the release.

The company declined to disclose its lease rate, but data from the CoStar Group shows annual asking rents at the building typically range from $43 per square foot to $63.36 per square foot. The 36-story tower boasts an all-glass facade and 267,888 square feet of leasable space, nearly 97 percent of which is currently occupied. The building, located at 1395 Brickell Avenue, last sold in September to the Gaedeke Group for $142 million. Other tenants include Quest Workspaces, Brickell Bank and the Consulate General of France.

Leste is a relatively young company, founded two years ago by veteran financial executive Emmanuel Hermann in Rio de Janeiro. According to its website, the firm’s focus is split into four sectors: liquid asset management, debt, real estate and private equity. Its real estate arm owns roughly $250 million worth of assets in Brazil, where Leste has 60 employees spread across its three offices. — Sean Stewart-Muniz

]]>http://americansforbrazil.com/brazilian-hedge-fund-opens-first-u-s-office-on-brickell/feed/0Brazilian Billionaires Facing Hard Timeshttp://americansforbrazil.com/brazilian-billionaires-facing-hard-times/
http://americansforbrazil.com/brazilian-billionaires-facing-hard-times/#commentsMon, 18 Jul 2016 18:19:35 +0000http://americansforbrazil.com/?p=1918 Continue Reading…]]>It’s not all it’s cracked up to be these days, being a Billionaire in Brazil. With investigations, international money transfer rules, and the thought of going to jail, it makes the working class seem more and more attractive, even in Brazil.

Who wants to be a billionaire!? The answer to that question in Brazil in particular may very well be…no one.

Billionaires, millionaires and their BFFs in Brasilia are going to jail. And in record numbers. There’s no love loss for the elite. Between the ransacking of Petrobras, in which many of them colluded with the government to bribe their way to lucrative contracts, to the lackluster infrastructure for the upcoming Olympic games (promoted by fallen billionaire Eike Batista) the uber-rich that once helped shine the spotlight on Brazil are now partly to blame for its humiliating collapse.

The good news is that Brazil’s super rich aren’t all white collar criminals. They’re an interesting bunch of characters running powerful, creative enterprises — media moguls and private equity wunderkinds. Those personalities enticed former Bloomberg reporter Alex Cuadros to spend much of the last five years chronicling their successes and failures in “Brazillionaires: The Godfathers of Modern Brazil.” The book was bought by a division of Random House and released in the U.S. last week.

There is nothing uniquely special about Brazil billionaires. Besides the fact that they have made headlines over the last several years, including during the ongoing Petrobras scandal, they’re just like the rest of their ilk abroad. Some inherited their wealth. Some, like Brazil’s richest man Jorge Paulo Lemann, made impressive investment calls in generally boring businesses. Others believed they were Christened by the Most High. Money making is their talent; a gift from God. And God is “Brasileiro” so they had easier access to the Lord than most.

Like their peers up north, Brazil billionaires enjoy the fast lane. Cuadros explains Harvard man Lemann’s attempt to surf a storm swell in Copa. Thirty footers of adrenaline pumping machismo for a man, then in his 20s, who was used to surfing ten footers at best. It taught him a life lesson. “I thought back to that wave I surfed in Copacabana far more than I thought about the things I learned in college,” Lemann is quoted saying. “It gave me a certain self-confidence when it came to taking risks.” Hell, this could be Sir Richard Branson strapping himself to a rocket launcher jacked up on Red Bull. This is how billionaires roll. No wonder they have so much in common with each other. Some guys surf the wave to shore, others get drilled. Cuadros book has plenty of wipe-outs.

One of the true hallmarks of “Brazillionaires” is Cuadros’ storytelling. Readers go along with him for the ride. The way he narrates the book makes their story cinematic. You’re off to the races from the get-go, helicoptering into billionaire offices with cocky, young Bloombergeditors interviewing supermarket billionaire Abilio Diniz; tripping over $35,000 furniture in luxurious Rio penthouses (as if there is any other kind) and living like a Western colonial on $1,000 a night dinners for two at D.O.M., a high class São Paulo restaurant coveted by “Mauricinhos” and “Patricinhas” — those rich, young, circle rafters gearing up to be Brazil’s next billionaire class. For some of them, there is a foreboding sense about being worth only single digit millions. Miami and New York are their home away from home. Switzerland holds a lot of their cash.

]]>http://americansforbrazil.com/brazilian-billionaires-facing-hard-times/feed/0Brazil Market Rallies In Spite of Woeful Newshttp://americansforbrazil.com/brazil-market-rallies-in-spite-of-woeful-news/
http://americansforbrazil.com/brazil-market-rallies-in-spite-of-woeful-news/#commentsThu, 14 Jul 2016 18:58:43 +0000http://americansforbrazil.com/?p=1914 Continue Reading…]]>You have to give the Brazilians credit for being optimistic. In spite of it all, and there is a lot of it, they still see a bright future ahead for the Brazilian economy, if the stock market is any indication.

The Ibovespa gained for a sixth consecutive session, heading for its longest rally since March, amid speculation that Brazil’s lower house will elect a speaker who supports Acting President Michel Temer’s proposals to cut Brazil’s budget deficit.

Itau Unibanco Holding SA and Banco Bradesco SA, Brazil’s largest banks, contributed the most to the gauge’s advance. State-controlled oil producer Petroleo Brasileiro SA, known as Petrobras, followed crude lower after data showed U.S. supplies rose.

With gains of 52 percent in dollar terms this year, Brazil’s Ibovespa is the top performer among the world’s major stock benchmarks on speculation that Temer, who temporarily replaced Dilma Rousseff as she faces an impeachment trial, will be able to shore up the country’s finances. While the government has announced measures to reduce the budget deficit, most are still waiting for approval by lawmakers. The lower house is scheduled to choose its new leader by the end of Wednesday, and there are 14 candidates for the job.

“It looks like most of the candidates in the running for the lower house will be more or less aligned with Temer,” Ignacio Crespo, an economist at Clear Corretora, said by phone from Sao Paulo. “There’s clearly a more favorable situation for Temer, compared to Dilma, when it comes to power to push measures through Congress.”

Brazil’s benchmark equity index is trading at 12.5 times estimated earnings, which is 11 percent above its five-year average. Latin America’s biggest economy is forecast to contract 3.3 percent this year after shrinking 3.8 percent in 2015, according to a weekly survey by the central bank.

]]>http://americansforbrazil.com/brazil-market-rallies-in-spite-of-woeful-news/feed/0Some People Are More Concerned About Zika Than Othershttp://americansforbrazil.com/some-people-are-more-concerned-about-zika-than-others/
http://americansforbrazil.com/some-people-are-more-concerned-about-zika-than-others/#commentsMon, 11 Jul 2016 20:35:28 +0000http://americansforbrazil.com/?p=1910 Continue Reading…]]>Like the giant statute of Christ the Redeemer on Corcovado or the wildest Samba parties during Carnival, there are some things you can always count on Rio de Janeiro to provide. As Rio gets closer to hosting the Summer Olympics, with certain things, you can count on Rio being Rio. Girls, Girls, Girls.

Disappointed by the low number of customers who turned up in Rio de Janeiro’s red light district during the 2014 World Cup, prostitutes in the Olympic host city are offering athletes and visitors an “early bird” special ahead of the games.

A flier that has been circulating around Rio ahead of the August games shows threesomes going for as low as $25 and an hour with one girl costing a little more than $18.

Streetwalkers in the city’s notorious Vila Mimosa red light district, despite high hopes of big business, saw little action during the World Cup.

Many of the prostitutes blame the rise of escort services that deliver girls to a patron’s hotel, and Vila Mimosa’s reputation for criminal activity as the reason that customers stayed away.

“But hardly anyone turned up. During the World Cup the road was virtually empty. I think the foreigners were scared to come to a place like this, which isn’t close to the beaches or hotels. And they were probably afraid of catching something too,” she said. “There were a few Argentinians and Uruguayans, but they didn’t have much money and tried to bargain right down. Even our regular Brazilian clients didn’t show up, they were too interested in watching the football.”

Docincha told the U.K. publication, “But this time around, we’re under no illusions. We know we’ll be forgotten during the Olympics, just like we were during the World Cup.”

That’s why the flier – which is printed in English and features the famous Olympic rings – is meant to draw early visitors to the city who are looking for a good time.

Docinha added that Vila Mimosa’s sprawling complex of bars and nightclubs is a marketplace for sex, where tourists can shop for whatever they are looking for.

“There are women here for every taste – black, white, chubby, mature, whatever you like. You can walk around and take your time until you find the one you like the most,” she said. “And just like any supermarket, we’ve now got some great deals and we’re cutting our prices. There’s no other place in Rio like it. Take a bit of time while you’re here to come.”

The district, which has been in constant operation since World War I, when single Eastern European migrants resorted to prostitution in order to make ends meet, is located less than a mile the Maracanã soccer stadium where the Olympics’ opening ceremony is to take place on Aug. 5.

Besides the escort service business – which customers claim is safer, if more expensive – prostitutes in Vila Mimosa say that Brazil’s worsening financial crisis has cut down on customers, but also driven more girls into the business.

“It’s never been this bad, and most of the women here are desperate. But few of us think anything will come of the Olympics. We’re all worried that business will grind to a halt like it did during the World Cup,” Gabriela Alves said. “The clientele has decreased, and competition’s increased.”

]]>http://americansforbrazil.com/some-people-are-more-concerned-about-zika-than-others/feed/0Olympics in Rio, yay.http://americansforbrazil.com/olympics-in-rio-yay/
http://americansforbrazil.com/olympics-in-rio-yay/#commentsThu, 30 Jun 2016 17:57:41 +0000http://americansforbrazil.com/?p=1905 Continue Reading…]]>The good news is, the projection has been upgraded from a “massive catastrophe” to merely a “big failure”…by the Brazilians!

Stephen Colbert pointed out some major red flags ahead of the Summer Olympics in Rio.

“I am pumped for the Rio games,” the “Late Show” host said on Tuesday’s episode. “They are less than two months away or never, because just yesterday, Rio’s acting governor warned the Olympics could be a ‘big failure,’ which could be an improvement because until yesterday it looked like a massive catastrophe.”

From construction problems, corruption, and violent crime to the looming threats of contagious disease, the games are in disarray.

The construction has been plagued by criminal price fixing and kickbacks, which has led to several top executives being charged or imprisoned.

“Though on the plus side for those executives, the prisons won’t be completed until 2036,” Colbert joked.

Then there’s the violent crime rate in the country. It’s so bad that a former player on Brazil’s soccer team discouraged international travelers from attending the games, saying, “Here you will be running the risk of your life.”

Also on Tuesday, first responders staged a protest over deep budget cuts.

That led to Colbert joking that Brazil’s new tourism slogan is: “Brazil: Come for the sport, stay because you’re dead.”

Then there’s the health crisis. Fear of catching the Zika virus has already led several athletes to pull out of the games. Others fear the virus’ effect on their ability to have children. Some male athletes are even freezing their sperm. Then there’s the pollution and deadly bacteria that have been found in the bays intended for the Olympic boat races.

“Boy, I would hate to work for a network that paid billions of dollars to broadcast that cluster-munch,” the CBS late-night host said, referring to Olympics broadcaster NBC.

]]>http://americansforbrazil.com/olympics-in-rio-yay/feed/0UN Says Brazil Pulls Down Region’s Foreign Investmentshttp://americansforbrazil.com/un-says-brazil-pulls-down-regions-foreign-investments/
http://americansforbrazil.com/un-says-brazil-pulls-down-regions-foreign-investments/#commentsThu, 16 Jun 2016 19:08:40 +0000http://americansforbrazil.com/?p=1901 Continue Reading…]]>The slowdown of the Brazilian economy was one of the key factors for the decline in foreign direct investments (FDI) inflows in Latin America and the Caribbean in 2015, according to the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC).

The decline, according to the entity ‘is due to lower investment in sectors linked to natural resources, mainly mining and hydrocarbons, and to the deceleration of economic growth, above all in Brazil’. The commission’s annual report on foreign direct investments was released on Wednesday at ECLAC’s headquarters in Santiago, Chile.

Data from Brazil, shows that the inflow of foreign direct investments shrank by 23 percent to US$75.075 billion dollars last year. Brazil, however continues to be the top recipient of foreign investments in the region, obtaining approximately 42 percent of all FDI inflows into Latin America.

The United States was once again the main investor in the region last year, responsible for 25.9 percent of FDI, followed by the Netherlands (15.9 percent) and Spain (11.8 percent).

For 2016, ECLAC estimates that the inflow of foreign direct investments will remain below the levels reached in recent years, due to the economic prospects of the countries in the region. “It could decline as much as 8 percent, although it will continue to be an important factor in the region’s economies,” stated the commission’s report.

As for foreign direct investments outflows from the region, these declined substantially to US$47.362 billion dollars in 2015, down by 15 percent from the year before. Although Brazil and Mexico are the countries with the most capital invested outside their borders, in 2015 Chile was the biggest investor abroad.

]]>http://americansforbrazil.com/un-says-brazil-pulls-down-regions-foreign-investments/feed/0Brazilian immigrant overcame struggles to rise to top in charter schoolhttp://americansforbrazil.com/brazilian-immigrant-overcame-struggles-to-rise-to-top-in-charter-school/
http://americansforbrazil.com/brazilian-immigrant-overcame-struggles-to-rise-to-top-in-charter-school/#commentsMon, 13 Jun 2016 18:13:21 +0000http://americansforbrazil.com/?p=1898 Continue Reading…]]>When she was younger, Barbara Ferreira never imagined she’d be her school’s valedictorian or the first in her family to attend college. At times, she wasn’t even sure she would get to stay in the United States until graduation.

In middle school, the Brazilian immigrant was an indifferent student. She had other concerns, as her mother struggled to support Barbara and her older sister by cleaning houses, and they worried about their immigration status.

“I was never really confident in school,” said Ferreira, 18. “I was always the quiet student in the back of the room who was scared to give an answer, because I always felt like it wasn’t the right answer.”

But last week, Ferreira stood before her teachers and classmates as valedictorian of City on a Hill Charter Public School, where faculty members said she has been not just a hard-working student, but also a compassionate member of a community.

Guidance counselor Diana Mastrocola said she first noticed Ferreira during a lunch break on a day of MCAS testing.

“She was just so bubbly, and energetic, and encouraging: ‘Come on, guys! We’ve got this! We can do this!’ ” Mastrocola said. “And then the second we restarted the testing, she was focused, back to work, serious. She doesn’t rush through things. She really pays attention to detail.”

Ferreira said she developed close relationships with teachers at the Roxbury charter school, who recognized that she was struggling early on, as she transitioned from a traditional public school as a freshman. Because she lacked confidence in her academic abilities, she was hesitant to ask for help.

By her senior year, it was clear that she was uncommonly intuitive and inquisitive, said Nick Delis, who taught Ferreira in an Advanced Placement government class.

“We were doing notes and just throwing questions out there” on the first or second day of class, Delis said, “and it seemed like she, more than any other student . . . really understood how the system worked, how government worked, even before we dug out all the information that they needed.”

Ferreira’s academic trajectory changed about six years ago, when her mother became the live-in housekeeper for a busy Jamaica Plain husband and wife, both business owners. The couple and their daughter have encouraged Barbara to see her potential and strive for achievement, she said.

“They helped me a lot, telling me how the school system works here in Boston,” Ferreira said. “They hired me a math tutor when they found out I was struggling in math. . . . They said they believed in me, even though I never did very well in middle school.”

Ferreira’s mother, Cacia Oliveira, said her employers treat them like members of their family, and she is grateful that they have embraced Barbara as if she were their own child.

RIO DE JANEIRO (Reuters) – Brazilian investigators have expanded their probe into possible corruption around the staging of the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro this August to include all the venues and services financed with federal funds, a lead prosecutor told Reuters.